As has become typical of my reviews, I'll contrast what I expected from this book with what I actually got. It's becoming a rather tired method of reviewing books, so I'll try to can the technique after this.

Anyway, I had hoped that this would be another way to set up presentations and would be an alternative to Presentation Zen (a good book, but I've grown tired of it). In a sense "Slide:ology" is an alternative, but it focuses a bit too much on the minute details of design for me. Entire chapters are dedicated to such things as background color, font, text, image placement and the like. All of these are worthwhile topics but my mind just doesn't work in those terms. The level of detail was, for someone with my brain composition, mind-numbing.

This is, however, more my problem that Nancy Duarte's. If the intimate details of slide design are your thing, this would be an excellent book. I was just looking for something more general. ( )

Good companion to Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. Slide:ology has a more nuts and bolts approach and more details than the latter. Lots of good examples. Worth the investment. ( )

Over the last year or so, I've been investigating aspects of presentation skills. My motivation has been to try and improve my slide design to make the data I present more easily assimilable. To an extent, my interest is sparked by the different types of presentation I'm increasingly asked to make. From detailed reports of my research, I have recently delivered slide-free talks, presentations to schools, and feel I should use presentation media to convey strategic concepts in my work environment.

Books I've found interesting and/or useful in data presentation include the various books by Edward Tufte (reviewed elsewhere on this site), and one or two books outlining slide design, mostly useful in delivering concepts rather than data, such as Presentation Zen, and this book, Slide:ology.

To my mind, this isn't a book to read from cover to cover, but a book to dip in and out of, reading sections. It's very informative on many aspects of slide design, including use of images, colour palettes and layout ratios. Sections also cover use of movement, animation, video and slide transitions all to add structure and story-telling to the presentations. it's a trove of excellent advice.

I have a couple of criticisms and reservations- neither particularly severe. The general tone of the book comes over as a bit self-congratulatory (and back-slappy with Duarte's chums in the presentation design industry). Also, I find it's aimed mostly at the corporate customer - it's hard to see how many of the design precepts could be easily applied to the kind of technical presentations that I generally deliver. Nontheless, I think I'll pick up useful ideas. ( )

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/... ( )

A fantastic book about presentation and design written by the designer of Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" slide show. ( )